Oil sands tailings ponds (Canada)

Oil sands tailings ponds

Oil sands tailings ponds are engineered dam and dyke systems used to capture oil sand tailings. Oil sand tailings contain a mixture of salts, suspended solids and other dissolvable chemical compounds such as acids, benzene, hydrocarbons[1] residual bitumen, fine silts and water.[2] Large volumes of tailings are a byproduct of bitumen extraction from the oil sands and managing these tailings is one of the most difficult environmental challenges facing the oil sands industry.[2] An October 2021 Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) report said that in 2020 the tailings ponds increased by another 90 million cubic meters and contained 1.36 billion cubic metres of fluids.[3]

  1. ^ "Canada, United States: SOLAR Power Process Transform Oil Sands Tailings", Mena Report via HighBeam, 26 September 2014, archived from the original on 29 March 2015, retrieved 2 December 2014
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference AB_FactSheet2013 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Bulowski_20211018 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).